Nervous shark
Carcharhinus cautus (Whitley, 1945)
Status not recordedsharks and rays
The nervous shark (Carcharhinus cautus) is a species in the family Carcharhinidae, order Carcharhiniformes.
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Quick facts about the nervous shark
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the nervous shark live?
Not recorded
Is the nervous shark endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the nervous shark classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classElasmobranchii
- orderCarcharhiniformes
- familyCarcharhinidae
- genusCarcharhinus
- SpeciesCarcharhinus cautus (Whitley, 1945)
Synonyms Galeolamna cautus, Galeolamna greyi cauta
Other names and names in other languages (8)
- Sharks Bay whaler sharkEnglish
- Nervöser HaiGerman
- Tiburón NerviosoSpanish
- Requin nerveuxFrench
- Squalo grigio timorosoItalian
- Nerveuze haaiDutch
- Tubarão-nervosoPortuguese
- Пугливая акулаRussian
Relatives of the nervous shark
Other species in the same genus Carcharhinus.

Bull shark
Carcharhinus leucas

Oceanic whitetip shark
Carcharhinus longimanus

Blacktip reef shark
Carcharhinus melanopterus

Grey reef shark
Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Blacktip shark
Carcharhinus limbatus

Silky shark
Carcharhinus falciformis
CompareNervous shark vs Bull sharkNervous shark vs Oceanic whitetip sharkNervous shark vs Blacktip reef sharkNervous shark vs Grey reef shark
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
What kind of animal is the nervous shark?
The nervous shark (Carcharhinus cautus) belongs to the family Carcharhinidae in the order Carcharhiniformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Nervous shark (Carcharhinus cautus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/nervous-shark
“Nervous shark (Carcharhinus cautus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/nervous-shark.
@misc{nervous_shark_2026,
title = {Nervous shark (Carcharhinus cautus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/nervous-shark},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}